This past year we were confronted with several cases in which trans inclusion seriously threatened the future of female sports. Following New Zealand representative Laurel Hubbard’s attempt at weight lifting, Lia Thomas competed and won an NCAA race against females.
The audacity of trans women in choosing to compete against biological women hasn’t stopped surprising onlookers. And in fact many trans athletes and activists still try to insist that there are no physical advantages for trans athletes.
According to groundbreaking research, transgender women are physically stronger and have larger hearts and lungs than women who are born female. Researchers confirmed in a new study that trans women had less body fat and muscular mass than those born as females.
The research contends that this held true even after years of hormone suppression. The results provide the clearest evidence that transgender women have a competitive sports edge over biological women.
Researchers think their findings might ‘guide policy’ about choices regarding transgender women’s participation in athletic activities. Researchers at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil aimed to examine how testosterone exposure during puberty and long-term oestrogen medication affected athletes’ ability to excel in sports.
15 transgender women who had been receiving hormone treatment for an average of 14 years underwent a battery of tests.
Their performance was then contrasted with that of 14 cisgender women and 13 cisgender males, who identified as the same gender as they did at birth.
Body fat and muscle mass measurements were taken from participants, who were equivalent in terms of fitness level and had an average age of 32. Participants used a treadmill to monitor their heart and lung function, and hand grip tests were used to gauge their strength.
Researchers discovered that transgender women’s total body fat was greater than that of men who were born men but lower than that of women who were born females.
Similar to this, transsexual women have larger muscles and stronger grips than regular women. The results from the study were reported in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The results, according to the researchers, “add new insights to the sparse information available on a highly controversial topic about the participation of transgender women in physical activities.”
The impact of long-term gender-affirming hormone treatment on transgender women’s athletic performance will need to be investigated in further research, including transgender athletes.
According to Dr. Channa Jayasena, a specialist in reproductive endocrinology and andrology at Imperial College London, the results showed that transwomen and cisgender women vary from each other in terms of muscle growth, strength, and oxygen consumption.
Earlier this year, the strenuous sport of triathlon, which includes swimming, cycling, and running over a variety of lengths, became the first to exclude transwomen from participating in female competitions at all levels. The historic ruling by British Triathlon in July prohibits transwomen from competing in female races at all levels of the sport beginning in January 2023.
Transwomen are not permitted to play in female-only divisions of rugby, according to the Rugby Football League (RFL) and Rugby Football Union (RFU), the two national rugby governing bodies in Britain.
The Fédération Internationale De Natation forbade any transwoman who went through any stage of male puberty and gained greater muscle as a consequence from competing in women’s races (FINA). The international swimming governing body introduced the regulation in June, and it only applies to elite and international competitions.